August 13, 2007

Pontius Pilate asked these words, and since then the answer to this question has eluded many a great minds. But isn’t the Word very clear on this point? The Word of God is truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light. But when you look at the world around you, how can so much science (and other sources) claim that something is truthful, if their very foundation (or worldview) completely rejects the idea of a supreme God? This question is very crucial to most discussions that take place between opposing worldviews.

First let’s start with discussing the foundation of faith in God. One idea that Paul expresses in his letter to the Romans is that God’s existence is evident in creation…

By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.

Romans 1:20 (The Message)

Basically, all you have to do to know that God is real is to look at the world around you. Can you make a tree? I’d bet my next paycheck that you could not spontaneously generate a tree. My point is that God (truth) exists whether we believe it, recognize it, or even accept it. If the truth exists, even separate from the Word or knowledge of God, then even if I do not know (or subscribe to) the ideas of the Bible, truth still exists. Science call these “truths” the “laws” of science. Once something is proven beyond any reasonable probability, then it becomes a law. In science, laws are absolutes. Until then, it is still a theory.

So science can have ideas about how things work, and some of it is “absolute” and some of it is not. Therefore what happens is that there is this realm of truth that exists. Imagine it like a big circle. Then there are these other bubbles of ideas like psychology, or sociology, or biology. Within each of these bubbles there are some things that are recognized as absolute truth, and some that are still theories. Imagine these bubbles intersecting with the “circle of truth,” some of the idea would be on the outside (still theory), and some on the inside (truth).

Here’s the funny thing. God has an absolute as well. It is His Word, or truth. And so far His Word has not yet contradicted any law that science has discovered. For example, look at the laws of thermodynamics. One of them basically states that there is a specific amount of matter in the entire universe, and that this amount cannot change. Well the Bible also states that “the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array” (Genesis 2:1, NIV, emphasis mine). This would be an indication that the creation was complete, and nothing else was to be added or taken away.

Back to my point… The idea that I want to get across here is that truth is truth, no matter where people say it originates from. Truth can be “discovered” by someone who has no idea who God is. How? Because it is there whether you believe He exists or not. So this would lead us to the following question… Is it still “truth” if some source outside of God’s Word “discovered” it? I believe the answer to this is, absolutely! The truth is the truth.

This is an important concept to get your mind around as I begin to dig into some of the topics that I plan to discuss here soon. For example, I was just talking to a friend about the psychology of “Behaviorism”. One of the things that this psychological approach teaches is that positive and negative reinforcements can be used to encourage behavior. Personally, I believe that this lines up with Biblical principles (inside the circle of truth). However, there are other pieces of this psychology that are very anti-Biblical (outside the circle of truth).

It is important to understand that truth can be discovered by many sources, and used as a part of other theories. We shouldn’t let that invalidate the truth. In fact, we should embrace the things that we share in common, and find ways to use the open door to tie in the rest of the truth. Don’t let the differences separate us so much that we cannot be conversational with those who have not yet discovered the rest of the truth!

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12 Comments

Great post! I believe in an absolute truth. There are a lot of people who would say that everyone has their own truth, but that would just cause a lot of chaos. You are also right about the truth being misused. If you use one truth with one falsity, does that make the result true? I guess there are a lot of peope who aren’t very good at logic because they fall for the falsities that use truth as support. For example, many religions use the Bible to support their beliefs, but they do not use it correctly. Does that make the Bible wrong? No! It makes the interpretation wrong. The absolute truth is the absolute truth. It cannot be changed.

Great post! I believe in an absolute truth. There are a lot of people who would say that everyone has their own truth, but that would just cause a lot of chaos. You are also right about the truth being misused. If you use one truth with one falsity, does that make the result true? I guess there are a lot of peope who aren’t very good at logic because they fall for the falsities that use truth as support. For example, many religions use the Bible to support their beliefs, but they do not use it correctly. Does that make the Bible wrong? No! It makes the interpretation wrong. The absolute truth is the absolute truth. It cannot be changed.

Great post! I believe in an absolute truth. There are a lot of people who would say that everyone has their own truth, but that would just cause a lot of chaos. You are also right about the truth being misused. If you use one truth with one falsity, does that make the result true? I guess there are a lot of peope who aren’t very good at logic because they fall for the falsities that use truth as support. For example, many religions use the Bible to support their beliefs, but they do not use it correctly. Does that make the Bible wrong? No! It makes the interpretation wrong. The absolute truth is the absolute truth. It cannot be changed.